In the midst of the lavish celebrations held for US President Donald Trump during his recent and very brief visit to the region “celebrating” the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, which was imposed through a war of extermination and starvation practiced by the Israeli occupying state over two years, and with the direct material and military complicity and support from the “esteemed” guest, two honourable Iranian positions emerged in our opinion:

Iran rejected President Trump’s invitation to resume negotiations with the US during a speech in the Israeli Knesset, which received a standing ovation. • Iran also declined to attend the Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit, led by President Trump and attended by leaders and representatives from approximately 20 countries. Minister Arachis’s stance is consistent with that of Mr Imam Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, who stated, “The American conditions for dialogue and ending the tension in relations were disgraceful and exaggerated, the most prominent of which was the complete cessation of uranium enrichment,” as well as the handover of 450 kilogrammes of enriched uranium. He went on: “Tehran’s problem with Washington is that it wants it to become a follower and a tool of America, which is completely rejected.

The second Iranian stance, refusing to accept Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s invitation to join President Trump’s “Peace Summit” in Sharm El-Sheikh, was also admirable. This refusal was not directed at Egypt, but rather to avoid shaking hands or taking photos with an American president who has perpetrated two significant crimes against Iran:

The first: In June of last year, he dispatched his massive bombers to hit Iranian nuclear facilities in support of an Israeli aggression, at the request and coordination of Netanyahu, and the results were disastrous.

The second was the revocation of the nuclear accord agreed upon by the six major nations in 2015. During Trump’s first term, Netanyahu was quick to laud and congratulate Trump for taking this action at his request, as noted in his speech to the Knesset. This resulted in the reintroduction of the blockade and sanctions on Iran, to starve its people and incite them to “revolution” and destroy their current leadership, to install an American-friendly one. This cancellation was the greatest gift to Iran, particularly to the Supreme Leader.

The Iranian leadership, whether some agreed or disagreed, was extremely foolish in its postures, whether rejecting Trump’s request for discussion or avoiding seeing him at the Sharm El-Sheikh summit, thereby joining the chorus of hypocrisy against him. How could an Iranian delegation rush into negotiations with an adversary (America) that has blasted its country with missiles and whose martyrs’ blood has yet to dry? How could its foreign minister attend the Sharm El-Sheikh summit, where most participants were Arab countries normalising relations with the occupying state, celebrating a fragile ceasefire with it, which we do not expect to last long, and from just one round, not to stop the genocide war and the bloodshed of the people of the sector (70,000 martyrs, 20,000 of whom were children), but to release all Israeli hostages so that “groom Trump” wins the “Nobel” Peace Prize.

This American president, who earned high accolades both in the Knesset and at Sharm El-Sheikh, has yet to acknowledge the two-state solution or the Israeli army’s conduct of genocide and hunger in the Gaza Strip. He did not hesitate to support Greater Israel at the expense of six Arab and Islamic countries. He even paved the way for it by demanding the “fattening” of the skinny State of Israel, approving the annexation of East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank. This president’s support for Israel’s aggression in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran, including the alleged rape of Jewish girls during the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation two years ago and the burning of infants in ovens, deserves to be shunned.

The recent 12-day war, which Israel sought assistance from all over the world to end after advanced Iranian missiles destroyed half of southern Tel Aviv and most of the Weizmann Institute of Science at its heart, killing and injuring hundreds of settlers, prompted Trump to demand Iran return to negotiations. He wants to save “Israel” and extend its existence, as well as the American bases in the region, and milk another handful of Arab trillions to keep the economy and the US dollar from collapsing.

The approaching and imminent conflict will not be a one-way track, as most prior wars were. The Palestinian resistance persists, governs, and expands; the Yemeni one grows in power; the Lebanese one will undoubtedly return; Iranian missiles and submarines are being developed; and the nuclear mix is ready and on the verge of enormous maturity.